By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
Former Cricket South Africa CEO Thabang Moroe has told the Social Justice and Nation Building (SJN) hearings that CSA is to blame for stifling the careers of coaches Geoffrey Toyana and Paul Adams.
Both former franchise coaches were allegedly touted to take over as head coach (in some other capacity) of the Proteas in 2017 but missed out in favour of West Indian Ottis Gibson. Moroe explained why he thought this.
“It is a testament to how we, as administrators, have behaved over the years. This is how people of colour have kept missing opportunities that could have been afforded to them by us. We, as CSA, literally killed the careers of these two gentlemen. These are the inequalities that are glaringly there if you look at the landscape of South African cricket.”
Before taking over as CEO, Moroe served as CSA vice-president and he explained how the board agreed that after Russell Domingo (South Africa’s first head coach of colour), the Proteas should have another head coach of colour with Toyana and Adams on the list of candidates.
“When Russell’s tenure ended, CSA’s cricket committee identified two coaches we would need to look at to replace Russell as the coach of the national team. Those were Geoffrey Toyana and Paul Adams. They were the two most successful coaches in the country. It was a no-brainer that either both would be hired, with one as an assistant, or one would definitely be made coach. At board level, we discussed the cricket committee’s paper and the one thing the board agreed on was that we would hire a black coach.”
Moroe was part of an ad hoc committee which had a mandate to shortlist and interview potential candidates and make a recommendation for the head coach appointment.
“During that period, even at board level, we were talking about how Geoffrey Toyana was head and shoulders above other coaches, purely because of his performances. When the chairperson of the ad hoc committee announced that they preferred Ottis Gibson to be the coach, it came as a surprise to us because we were talking about the short period the coach would have before the next World Cup and how we wanted a coach that was familiar with all our players in the system, with the South African environment and somebody who was going to be able to hit the ground running. Choosing somebody who didn’t even live in this country came as a surprise given all these things we had listed as concerns.”
Toyana was the first black African coach in the franchise system and won four trophies in four seasons with the Lions. Moroe explained again why Toyana was apparently overlooked.
Toyana was moved sideways at the Lions after 2017-18 season and then replaced by Enoch Nkwe. His most recent work was as assistant coach for the Titans. Last year in a radio interview, former CSA president Chris Nenzani said Toyana being overlooked for the national job was “unfortunate.” Moroe said it was “just wrong,” for Nenzani to say that when he was in charge of the board at the time. “We had an opportunity as a board to do what we knew was right at the time,” he said.
Adams lost his job at the Cobras to Ashwell Prince and has since been appointed head coach of Border, who will play in the second division of the restructured domestic scene.
Moroe moved on from vice-president of the board to CSA CEO, and it was under him that Gibson was dismissed and Nkwe made interim team director. When Moroe was suspended for misconduct, CSA underwent an administrative overhaul and Nkwe was replaced by Mark Boucher. Nkwe is now Boucher’s assistant, while Moroe was sacked last August after being found guilty.